Operation Justice, Poi Pet, Cambodia - Day 5, Friday

Good Morning All

I have to play catch up on updates this morning, so I have decided to skip breakfast and spend some time writing! So much happens each day that if I don’t do so, there will be too much to share and it will all get a bit overwhelming :-) and I will end up not telling you everything...

As I write, Bill from America is sharing from Proverbs 29 and I am listening with ½ an ear. This verse jumps out: ‘A righteous man knows the rights of the poor; a wicked man does not understand such knowledge (vs 7). Operation Justice is about establishing and safeguarding the rights of the poor. Bill has just made a comment about us being ‘like Jesus...’ in the things we have been doing this week. This was my thought last night.... we watched the ‘Jesus’ movie in Kmer and so many of the things we saw Jesus doing reminded us of things we had done this week. This thought had me close to tears...there is no greater honour than to be like Him. It was a good feeling though... following in His footsteps. Jesus had a heart for the poorest of the poor. He spent much time with the outcasts and the rejected, the unloved and unwanted, the people on the fringes of society. 

Operation Justice Garbage Collection Service

Yesterday (Day 5), we started off at XP Centre, where we had a wonderful time of praise and worship. And then we piled into the vans and drove back to the HIV and TB clinic, where we were issued with gloves and plastic large bags, and where we picked up all the rubbish that was scattered everywhere, keeping an alert eye for needles... there were a few! That task completed, we headed off up the street towards the border, picking up rubbish as we went. It was incredibly hot, and within a very short time we looked and felt as if we had just come out of the shower! I have not often had so much perspiration running off my forehead that it blinds me :-) 

Tired Rigan....

Whenever I found a particularly obnoxious pile of rubbish, I remembered the people who work at the rubbish dump, and the work became easy again... I did it in tribute to their courage and tenacity in embracing such a difficult life. The people around us were completely intrigued about Westerners cleaning up their streets, and we kept explaining that it is because we love Cambodia, and want it to be well with her. Within a short while we had children helping us, and people coming over and thanking us. And a short while after that a reporter arrived with a video camera to film an interview for TV! 

Narith with some of the street children

                                                                                   


Back at our hotel there was time for a shower and clothing change, and then it was time for lunch. Rice and chicken, or chicken and rice :-) Good food though.... and good conversation. Lunch over, we could choose to go to a village to play with children, or else go door to door to speak to families and ask if there was anything we could pray for them. I felt like playing with the children again, but decided rather to go door to door, as I have never done anything like this.


Actually, there are a lot of things I have never done before this week.

Cambodian Chess

 I was allocated to Bart’s team, (Yay! Go, Team Bart!!!) along with a number of new and special friends, and with Narith. At the first home we visited the lady was so gracious and welcoming, inviting us to come and sit down, but we declined as our shoes were SO muddy! It had rained and the dust was now mud. So we stood outside and chatted about her life and our lives and about God’s love and it was good. She asked if we would pray for peace on her home, which we did, and then her husband arrived. Beautiful, gracious, dignified people.... 

At the next house, there were two men sitting on the veranda, playing Cambodian chess. I thought we should probably not disturb them, but Bart asked if we could talk for a while and they responded with enthusiasm. It really touches my heart to see how we are welcomed and treated as honoured guests everywhere we go. When Bart asked if anyone needed prayer, one of the men said that he had pain in his chest and was battling to breathe... when Bart said he would pray he jumped up and came and stood with him and he smiled, and he continued to smile broadly the whole way through Bart’s prayer. He said he felt better after the prayer. He then said that it was so hard to find work in Cambodia, and that most people had to go to Thailand to get work. And that even in you did get work in Cambodia, you would only earn half what you would earn in Thailand. After listening to him, I said that I believed it would change, that God has His eye on Cambodia and that it is a new day... that maybe it will take time, but that Cambodia will be restored. Hope is surely the amongst the most valuable things we have to offer people... for out of hope comes vision, and this is the beginning of everything. 

Meanwhile a woman had come outside to join us, along with her children. I commented that the lady of the house was very beautiful... to which both men laughed and replied that they thought Shani, one of our team members, was beautiful! The man then said that he would like to know more about our God, and Bart said he would bring him a book to read, and we told him about CHO. 

Interpreters and friends, Narith and Rigan

Shani, Emma, Claire and I with Narith & Rigan

 By the way, all these conversations were interpreted back and forth by Narith. He must be getting tired after the busy week though, as a few times one of us would speak in English, he would interpret in Khmer, the Cambodian would respond in Khmer, and then he would interpret for us... in Khmer!!!! Needless to say this made everyone laugh. It was such fun that we were shocked to find that our time had passed by already, and that we needed to get back to the hotel to change for dinner... we were going out for supper to a choice of either an American restaurant or a Thai restaurant at the border. Before going to the hotel though, we stopped at the market to buy small gifts to give to the girls we were planning to see in the evening. 

A group of us, along with most of the interpreters chose Thai, and the rest went off to get burgers or pizza. I had a Thai Green Curry and it was SO delicious! After supper the interpreters sang a song in Khmer for us. It was so beautiful. We then had a fun time taking various combinations of group photos. We have grown to love these interpreters of ours so much this week. They have given us a voice where we had none, and have shared in our journey towards compassion. I don’t like the thought of parting from them.... 


By now it was quite late and time to go to the Karioke bars (Karioke bars are similar to brothels BTW). Once again we divided into our groups (Team Bart !) and we went to a bar near the casino. It must have been a little surprising to see a fairly large group of ladies accompanied by three men entering this place! We were shown to a room and in a while 6 young girls joined us. We explained that we had come just to talk with them, and to let them know that God loves them and cares about them. One of the serving girls caught my eye and immediately I knew in my heart that she was a Christian, and this turned out to be so. As soon as she could she came running over and sat down with me and hugged me. She told me (Rose interpreting) that she had been a Christian for 4 years, and that sometimes when she was very sad, she wanted to go away from Jesus, but that He always came after her and called her back, and now she knew that she would never leave Him. She knew lots of Christian songs, even in English, and we sang some of them together. I was in at the deep end, because our interpreters were both busy translating for other members of the team, and my Khmer is severely limited, and so was her English! We just kept smiling at each other though, and she kept saying ‘Thank you Jesus, thank you Jesus!’ and then she just nestled up against me like a small bird and I put my arm around her and hugged her and hugged her and my heart was just breaking because this life she is living is so unfair... and oh dear, I am crying again just writing this... not good; I am sitting in the lobby of the hotel! 

Actually, we have all been doing a lot of crying in the midst of the laughter this week. How we wish we could change the things we see RIGHT now! Anyway, I couldn’t really talk with her, and I was waiting for an interpreter, but the clock was ticking (we had paid for an hour of time with the girls and it cost us Thai Baht 550), so I grabbed my notebook and began drawing some pictures to try to explain that I had 5 children. She thought it was a counting game and began proudly counting 1,2,3,4,5 in English. So I drew a dog and another dog... to show that I had 2 dogs, but she gave me the Khmer word for ‘dog’ and so I gave her the English one. It didn’t matter really, it was the loving that counted. 

Earlier, I had bought a pair of earrings that were shaped like hearts. When I got hold of Narith to translate, I told her that one earring was to remember that Jesus loves her and will never leave her, no matter what she has to go through, and that the other was to remember that I love her and will pray for her. She said she did not want me to go. I said I did not want to be parted from her either... but that I know we will be together forever in heaven one day, and that this hope helps me to say ‘Goodbye’ for now. She then said that she also believes this, but that she would pray to see me again here in Poi Pet. She walked all the way to the van with me. I left there with my heart dragging behind me in little pieces. It was shattering; there are no words to tell you my sorrow about this situation.

It was similar for the rest of the team. Oh God, please raise up businesses in this city, so that these precious young women will no longer feel that the only way they can earn money to help their families is this way...